The Work of the Dead in Samoa: Rank, Status and Property

Authors

  • Malama Meleisea The National University of Samoa
  • Penelope Schoeffel The National University of Samoa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.125.2.149-170

Keywords:

Samoa, graves, burials, mausoleums, tombs, re-interment

Abstract

In Samoa the selection of burial sites and the type of monuments chosen to mark them not only signify affection and memorialisation, but also make visible statements about traditional rank, and nowadays about family status and claims to property. We examine what is known about burial practices and locations in pre-colonial Samoa and trace the changes that have occurred as a result of 19th-century power struggles, political change, colonial influences and regulations, and new settlement patterns and house-building practices.

Author Biographies

Malama Meleisea, The National University of Samoa

Malama Meleisea holds the Samoan chiefly titles Leasiolagi and Meleisea. He is Professor of Samoan Studies at the National University of Samoa. He was previously Country Director for UNESCO in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, and before that headed Centres of Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Penelope Schoeffel, The National University of Samoa

Penelope Schoeffel is Associate Professor at the Centre for Samoan Studies, National University of Samoa where she leads the postgraduate program in Development Studies. She previously taught anthropology and courses in the Development Studies program at the University of Auckland and as a visiting lecturer at universities in Thailand and Bangladesh.

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Published

2016-07-08

Issue

Vol. 125 No. 2 (2016): June 2016

Section

Articles

License

Copyright © 2022 by the Polynesian Society (Inc.)

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process without written permission.

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The Polynesian Society
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